I was at Best Buy today and have been thinking of getting a $200 Ipod (8GB). I was going through them looking for this feature: I want to be able to shuffle an entire artist catolog only. I dont want to shuffle the songs in the entire Ipod, nor random albums. Just songs within a artists catalog. Is that possible?

I didnt see it as an option on the floor models. My buddies with Ipods have no idea and I got into a huge discussion with the sales girl over this. I mean we must have talked for 20 minutes and she even hopped on google and looked for answers. She told me she has one so I told her her homework was to go home and find out with hers. She said she would and I said Id research it. She than told me she would be there on Monday but I said I wouldnt. She just wants the commision.

Could you just set up a playlist for an artist, and shuffle that? You'd have to add to the playlist as you add more tracks from that artist, but I think that could work.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5157832_shuf...tion-ipod.html

I would think that if you have Shuffle on, then go into Artists, select Play on the artist name, it would play everything in that "directory' shuffled.
Failing that you could set up an On the Go playlist based only on one artist (assuming there's <999 tracks in that directory) and play that.
Or a smart playlist where "artist" equals "whatever". But you'd have to do one for each artist you would be shuffling, of course.

Yes, you can do that with the iPod.

You just go to the artists section of the menu and you'll see all the albums from that artists and an option to play "All Songs". Select "All Songs" and then you'll see a list of all the songs from that artists (from all his/her albums)... just select the first one (or any of them - it doesnt matter). Once the song starts playing, keep clicking on the middle button on the wheel until you're presented with the shuffle menu at the bottom of the screen with the options of "Off", "Songs" and "Albums". Select "Songs" to shuffle all the songs from that artist.

Why is 8GB $200? Is it an iPod Touch?

Yeah the 8 GB Touch is around $200 and to call it an MP3 player is like calling a computer an MP3 player.

Does anyone know a way to EXCLUDE certain artists from a shuffle?

I want to be able to exlude all my comedy albums from music shuffles.

In itunes, I think you can select tracks and choose "Exclude from shuffle" from the song properties.
You can also exclude certain genres in smart playlists.

YES. Not only is it possible, but I do it all the time. Set the iPod to Songs Shuffle, then in the Music --> Artists menu, go down to the artist/band you want, and press PLAY instead of select. BAM. Total artist shuffle.

Piece of cake.

Pics of the sales girl?

Very cool! Can anyone confirm though? Not to doubt ya Hokey, but I dont want to sink $150 on an Ipod without being certain. None of my friends even own the one Im looking at. I cant test it at the store either because they have maybe one song an artist programmed.

I messed up guys. Its the 16GB Nano for $200, the 8GB is $150. Thats what Im looking at.

Cow, no pics. But if you can imagine a latina version of Keira Knightly with long black hair, you got this girl. Not bad but not the best. Im ging to rip into her next time and lay that 'exclude artist from shuffle' like you ask about carson, thatll stump her!

No self-respecting Latina would have a body that curveless.

Haha.

Yea but where I live, 80% of the Latinas are curved like eggs or beachballs. If those are the options than give me the former.

Gimme the egg over the toothpick any day. That's like 8 or 9 extra naughty bits!

Anyway I can absolutely confirm the artist shuffle, you don't need anyone else to chime in, and if you don't believe me you are worse than Pol Pot.

Can you come up to Austin and go to the Apple Store at The Domain? They not only have all of the iPods, but they're loaded with music. I'm heading there today to check on an Altec Lansing clock radio. I'm buying the 120 GB iPod Classic from Amazon on Friday so I need to audition the unit so I can bundle it in with the iPod. Love the new 1 day Saturday shipping - $6.99 and no tax!

Correction, I bought the iPod today from Best Buy - they're having a sale at BestBuy.com, and they will price match in the store! These things are going fast - I got the last black 120 GB they had at the Pflugerville store.

"Pflugerville"?

Look it up - Pflugerville Texas is where I live. It's right outside of Austin.

Another thread hijack..

Is there any way in iTunes to show a view of all songs that are NOT in a playlist?

I decided to hit BB while I was eating near there and I tried everything you guys suggested to make an artist catalog shuffle. It seemed like it could work, but since they only have 1 or 2 songs on a ipod I cant be too sure. I will try some more though. I could have tried a guys I knew, but last week he had his $250 ipod stolen at a party. My other good friends only have the small ones mainly used for jogging.

And oh man, at BB, that thin chick was there again and I was buy these 2 guys and she asked if any of us needed help. She than saw me and I made an oh no face and she said how she remembered me and just crashed through those dudes. She than said how I had given her a hard time so I told them she was just pestering me to buy. They looked pissed. After bullshitting a while I asked if it was possible to exclude an artist from a shuffle and she lost it! She said how I was real picky and technical and went into a rant. I just said "wow, what a little brat" and laughed. That caught her off guard. Yeesh, after that I had to leave.

Rav...

I've had my iPod for a week now, and you can indeed do what you're trying to do. I have over 12,000 songs on mine, and I did an artist shuffle the other day.

I've had my iPod and iPhone for over a year now and I've never once utilized the shuffle feature. I just tend to listen to whole albums at a time.

OHHHHH, GOOD FOR YOU!!!!

Did somebody say Pluggers?

Mine on the other hand is always on shuffle, and then I have lots of different playlists depending on what type of stuff I want to listen to (but those are always shuffled too). I only turn shuffle off to listen to a new CD.